Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain by Tom Watson
Authors: Tom Watson
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increasingly clear that the press were able to assert very substantial influence on public policy and the political processes.’
With the Taylor settlement going unreported, it was business as usual at the News of the World – especially for Neville Thurlbeck. In March 2008, the paper’s sex specialist was investigating the private life of motor racing executive Max Mosley, the son of the fascist politician Oswald Mosley. After reading physics at Oxford, Mosley had been called to the bar, but his passion had been motor racing and in 1993 he had become president of the world governing body for motorsport in Paris, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. In his own time, he occasionally participated in sado-masochistic orgies. Although not ashamed of this activity, he was aware that many people would disapprove of it and kept it from his wife, family and colleagues. While the world of S&M usually carefully guarded its secrets, a forthcoming participant at one of Mosley’s parties, known as ‘Michelle’, had mentioned his name to her husband, an MI5 agent, who realized Mosley might make a valuable story and contacted the News of the World . Thurlbeck offered ‘Michelle’ £25,000 and coached her how to record what he hoped would be Mosley performing a Sieg Heil salute. The orgy, themed on a correctional camp, duly took place at an apartment in Chelsea on Friday 28 March. After it was all over, Mosley and the women had a chat and a cup of tea.
Two days later , the News of the World ’s front page screamed: ‘F1 Boss in Sick Nazi Orgy with Five Hookers’, with the strapline ‘Son of Hitler-loving fascist in sex shame’. When Mosley showed the paper to his wife she thought her mischievous husband had mocked it up, but it was not a joke. Publication alerted Mosley’s wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues at the FIA and tens of millions of people to his secret sexual behaviour, which he had been lawfully practising in private at private premises. The Screws had also posted a ninety-second video clip online, where it was watched 1.4 million times.
Mosley, a genial but flinty character, set about getting his revenge. To ensure he was not being eavesdropped by the News of the World , he hired the Quest security consultancy, whose operatives stood watch over a walled garden in Chelsea while he met the arranger of the session, ‘Woman A’, as she was later known in court. Together they worked out he must have been betrayed by ‘Michelle’. MI5 sacked her husband after learning he had sold a story to the newspapers.
As Mosley battled to restore his reputation, the News of the World sought to gather more material about him for another story the following Sunday. On Wednesday 2 April, Thurlbeck emailed one of the female participants, threatening that unless she and the other women involved agreed to cooperate in the writing of a follow-up story, the paper would publish unpixilated pictures of them at the orgy and thus identify them. The women, some of whom had professional jobs, were horrified, but they did not give in to the threats.
On Friday 4 April 2008, Mosley sued the News of the World for breach of privacy. Tabloids usually bargained that anyone whose sex life had been exposed would not sue because a court case allowed embarrassing details to be reported by all papers and TV stations without fear of legal action. During the three-week trial in the High Court in July, the News of the World ’s QC, Mark Warby, subjected Mosley to an extensive cross-examination on his sex life, but he stood firm: he explained that the paper had conflated two scenes, one of an English prison camp and a second where he had happened to speak German, which, he explained, he had done as a favour to one of the women, whose fantasy was to be ordered about in a foreign language. The News of the World admitted it had not bothered to translate Mosley’s German remarks to check whether they contained Nazi references.
With the Taylor settlement going unreported, it was business as usual at the News of the World – especially for Neville Thurlbeck. In March 2008, the paper’s sex specialist was investigating the private life of motor racing executive Max Mosley, the son of the fascist politician Oswald Mosley. After reading physics at Oxford, Mosley had been called to the bar, but his passion had been motor racing and in 1993 he had become president of the world governing body for motorsport in Paris, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. In his own time, he occasionally participated in sado-masochistic orgies. Although not ashamed of this activity, he was aware that many people would disapprove of it and kept it from his wife, family and colleagues. While the world of S&M usually carefully guarded its secrets, a forthcoming participant at one of Mosley’s parties, known as ‘Michelle’, had mentioned his name to her husband, an MI5 agent, who realized Mosley might make a valuable story and contacted the News of the World . Thurlbeck offered ‘Michelle’ £25,000 and coached her how to record what he hoped would be Mosley performing a Sieg Heil salute. The orgy, themed on a correctional camp, duly took place at an apartment in Chelsea on Friday 28 March. After it was all over, Mosley and the women had a chat and a cup of tea.
Two days later , the News of the World ’s front page screamed: ‘F1 Boss in Sick Nazi Orgy with Five Hookers’, with the strapline ‘Son of Hitler-loving fascist in sex shame’. When Mosley showed the paper to his wife she thought her mischievous husband had mocked it up, but it was not a joke. Publication alerted Mosley’s wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues at the FIA and tens of millions of people to his secret sexual behaviour, which he had been lawfully practising in private at private premises. The Screws had also posted a ninety-second video clip online, where it was watched 1.4 million times.
Mosley, a genial but flinty character, set about getting his revenge. To ensure he was not being eavesdropped by the News of the World , he hired the Quest security consultancy, whose operatives stood watch over a walled garden in Chelsea while he met the arranger of the session, ‘Woman A’, as she was later known in court. Together they worked out he must have been betrayed by ‘Michelle’. MI5 sacked her husband after learning he had sold a story to the newspapers.
As Mosley battled to restore his reputation, the News of the World sought to gather more material about him for another story the following Sunday. On Wednesday 2 April, Thurlbeck emailed one of the female participants, threatening that unless she and the other women involved agreed to cooperate in the writing of a follow-up story, the paper would publish unpixilated pictures of them at the orgy and thus identify them. The women, some of whom had professional jobs, were horrified, but they did not give in to the threats.
On Friday 4 April 2008, Mosley sued the News of the World for breach of privacy. Tabloids usually bargained that anyone whose sex life had been exposed would not sue because a court case allowed embarrassing details to be reported by all papers and TV stations without fear of legal action. During the three-week trial in the High Court in July, the News of the World ’s QC, Mark Warby, subjected Mosley to an extensive cross-examination on his sex life, but he stood firm: he explained that the paper had conflated two scenes, one of an English prison camp and a second where he had happened to speak German, which, he explained, he had done as a favour to one of the women, whose fantasy was to be ordered about in a foreign language. The News of the World admitted it had not bothered to translate Mosley’s German remarks to check whether they contained Nazi references.
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